seda

Forms

seda f (plural sedas)^[1] Asturian has sea for horsehair, and Andalusian and Valencian sea for silk thread.^[2]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin saeta (“bristle of a pig or horse; fishing line”), which in the Middle Ages must have come to be used of silk thread, as the agreement of the Romance languages suggests; Old Spanish seda has the same form in the earliest texts.^[3][4][5] Wiktionary takes it from the variant sēta, without the diphthong.^[1] Corominas notes that the Latin word never means silk in the authors or the glossaries, and that Du Cange's first examples of the Romance sense are from the 12th century, from 1118.^[3][6] Niermeyer records the Medieval Latin word in the sense “silk”.^[7]

The same word is Portuguese seda, Galician seda, Asturian seda, Catalan seda, Occitan seda, French soie and Italian seta.^[3][8][2] French and some dialects of north-western Italy also kept the old sense “bristle”, of the pig.^[3] From early Romance, in the 8th or 9th century, the word passed with the sense “silk” into Germanic, among other languages: Old High German sida, German Seide.^[3][4]

The etymology is not settled.^[3][4] Diez, following Du Cange, rejected a derivation from Ancient Greek σής (sḗs, “moth larva”), and supposed that the Latin word was applied to silk because it was imported from the East as thread; later etymologists followed him.^[3] Corominas finds this probable but raises two objections: the Latin word meant “bristle”, not “thread”, and all the Romance forms point to a close /e/, which fits the spelling without the diphthong, found in some manuscripts, better than the spelling of the best ones.^[3] He mentions Kluge's starting point, “thread of animal origin”, which suits the Latin use of the word for fishing lines.^[3] In his Catalan dictionary he calls the explanation the least hypothetical one, but open to serious objections that point to an origin in Sanskrit or another eastern language.^[9] Wikcionario mentions a proposed root, that of Latin sēricum (“silk”), perhaps ultimately from Chinese.^[10]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *saitā and Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ito- (“cord”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ey- (“to bind”), with cognates such as Old Church Slavonic сѣть (sětĭ, “snare, net”) and Old High German seid (“cord”).^[11][1] De Vaan notes that Schrijver doubts the link with “to bind”, but that a sense “hair” could easily have developed from “cord”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), is already the cloth: Pharaoh gives Joseph his ring and vistiol pannos de seda “clothed him in garments of silk”.^[12] The old sense “bristle, horsehair” is found in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which fines whoever plucks hairs from a beast's tail for every seda pulled out.^[12] Berceo has both senses in one poem, the Vida de Santa Oria: lecho quiero yo áspero de sedas aguijosas “I want a rough bed of prickly bristles”, and a garment más preciosa que oro, más que la seda pura “more precious than gold, more than pure silk”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the word means silk thread, silk cloth and the bristles of pigs: the General Estoria says that the hair of pigs is called sedas.^[13] The sense “bristle” lasted into the Libro de Alexandre, Palencia, Nebrija (seda como de puerco o cauallo) and Autoridades, but Castilian normally replaced it with cerda, while it remained in general use in Portuguese and Galician.^[3][14] The Academy still lists “bristle, especially of the wild boar” as a sense.^[5]

Covarrubias derived the name from the Seres, a people of Scythia, and Autoridades from Latin sericum; the Academy's 1884 edition was the first to give Latin seta “bristle”.^[15][16][17] The first record from the Americas is from Cuba in 1521.^[18] Today the word also names the fibre spun by spiders, and in Córdoba a disease of fruit trees, especially apple trees, in which a cobweb-like growth smothers the blossom.^[5][19] In Argentina it is a strip of thin paper for rolling cigarettes.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar speaks of garments of silk (in a 13th-century copy).^[12]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses sedas for the hairs of a beast's tail.^[12]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the first record in Corominas.^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of a thread of red silk.^[13]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria calls the bristles of pigs sedas.^[13]
• 1490 – the derivative sedeño “silken” is first recorded;^[4] sedal “fishing line” follows in 1495.^[4]
• 1521 – the first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the name from the Seres.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin seta “bristle”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) silk: the viscous fluid secreted by glands of some arthropods, such as caterpillars and spiders, which hardens in the air into very fine, flexible threads.^[5][1]
2. Silk thread made of such fibres, used for sewing or weaving.^[5][1]
3. Silk cloth: una blusa de seda.^[5][1]
4. A bristle of some animals, especially the wild boar.^[5]
5. (Córdoba) A disease of fruit trees, especially the apple, in which a cobweb-like growth smothers the flower.^[5]
6. (Argentina) A strip of thin paper for rolling cigarettes.^[20]

Word family

• sedal
• sedeño
• sedero
• sedoso
• sedería

Related words

• cedazo
• Latin saeta
• Portuguese seda

Usage notes

Como una seda means “very smooth”, of a thing, and “very docile”, of a person;^[21][1] Román noted in Chile that it is used with other verbs than ser.^[21][1] The proverb aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda says that fine clothes do not change what someone is.^[1] Seda dental is dental floss, and gusano de seda the silkworm.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6101
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 186
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seda
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. seda
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. 7, 459c
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7498
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 728
10. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. seda
13. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. seda
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 414
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1291
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 64
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 963
18. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. seda
19. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 570
20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. seda
21. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 228